


Tuck Tail

by meanderingsoul



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Camping, Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Ficlet, Romantic Fluff, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 21:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21025187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingsoul/pseuds/meanderingsoul
Summary: Andrew sighed. He shouldn’t have told her that one.





	Tuck Tail

**Author's Note:**

> For the aos promptober day 13 prompt - telling scary/ghost stories!

Andrew was usually a sound sleeper, but a weird little noise woke him.

They didn’t go camping often, but they both liked it when they did, even though the first few times had been an _experience_. (Tents were not optional. He needed a heads up before somebody decided to hunt by _throwing rocks_ if she didn’t want him to drop the cooler.)

They went sometime in the fall at least once a year, a weekend or a little more in the beautiful mountains. By either just before or after midterms he always needed a break. If he could time the trip around May being stuck in meetings or evaluations, that was even better. They’d get some nice hiking in tomorrow, autumn color and crisp air, drive back the next morning.

Melinda would pretend the way she could climb trees was normal. Drew was used to it now. He didn’t worry she’d fall the same way anymore.

And he was not stupid enough to worry about it when she wanted to go skinny dipping someplace they probably shouldn’t.

But right now the hush outside was velvety and Melinda was leaned up on her elbows staring at the tent door in the pitch dark.

“Melinda?”

She jumped.

Andrew felt a heavy sinking in his chest. This was totally his fault.

“We’re supposed to tell scary stories around the campfire you know,” he’d said, had probably said something similar other years, but last night she’d turned towards him with a grin, washing the taste of her yearly attempt at eating a marshmallow out of her mouth with another beer.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah babe.”

“Whatcha got then?” she’d teased, leaning her chin up on his shoulder while she snatched another square of chocolate.

Melinda had never been to the kind of summer camps with nature walks and matching t-shirts as a kid, but Andrew had until he was about 14. He went through all the scariest stories he remembered until it got late, the fire burning low and the stars bright and he’d eaten one more s’more than he really should have.

Andrew sighed. He shouldn’t have told her that one.

“Have you slept at all?”

“…I thought I heard something.”

He rolled his eyes in the dark. Even to him, she could lie _way_ better than that. “No, you didn’t. You’ve been staring at the tent door for the last… couple hours.”

Andrew unzipped his sleeping bag. The fire was mostly burnt out and the air was cold. Melinda was a furnace. They’d both be sweaty by morning, but she wasn’t going to sleep otherwise.

“C’mere?”

“I’m fine. Go back to sleep,” she said, reaching over to squeeze his thigh but yanking her arm back into her sleeping bag a moment later.

“Would you come here beautiful?”

Watching her visually check the whole tent before she slid over to him in a scramble made him feel like a total shitheel.

He tugged her close and slid a leg between hers, zipped the sleeping bag behind her back before he kneaded at her shoulder, her breath too fast against his throat. “Better?”

“…I can’t see,” she muttered.

“There’s nothing to see. You need to sleep babe.”

“Drew…”

He groaned a bit under his breath, but helped her roll over to face away with a hand on her hip, warm against his lap and shifted his arm under her head.

“I’m sorry I told you the taily-po story after you talked about trying to catch something tomorrow,” he said with his chin against her silky hair.

“I told you, I just thought I heard something.”

Right. He could feel her curled fist against the side of his arm. Andrew stroked her cheek with his thumb. “You’re not foolin me Melinda.”

He let his arm rest heavy over her hip, rubbed his palm up and down her stomach, his knuckles against the soft curve of her breast until he could feel her breathing slower, feel his eyes getting heavy again. “Please sleep baby.”

She was still sound asleep when the sun was bright enough to wake him.

Andrew leaned up to look so carefully, her nose to his chest and curled knuckles near her face, the serious little pout when she slept and the arm tight around his stomach.

She liked to work out in the mornings. He woke up so often to the sound of her in the shower when she was home. He woke up to her getting dressed or drinking tea with her feet in his lap or with her hands already on him or when she jumped onto the bed from somewhere because she knew he was half-awake already and didn’t want to get up.

And he loved every one of those things, but he didn’t usually get Melinda sound asleep in his arms.

It was still Andrew’s favorite way to wake up.

**Author's Note:**

> The taily-po story as I know it seems to have originated in the Appalachia region and made its way south. I was thoroughly traumatized by it in grade school. Do not recommend. Xp


End file.
